Concerns grow over button sales at Farmers Market

The Kensington Farmers Market was canceled Saturday following an incident with Silver Spring resident Alan McConnell, a founder of the Washington Area Impeachment Fund LLC, who was selling buttons that read ‘‘IMPEACH HIM,” referring to President George W. Bush.

‘‘We’ve been doing this at the farmers market, Metro stops and all kinds of venues for 14 months and nothing has ever happened, aside from the occasional snarl from presidential supporters,” McConnell said on Thursday.

McConnell said he had been selling the buttons — for $1 each — at the weekly Kensington market for months, but was first asked to leave on June 16 by Kensington town staff.

McConnell left the market that day, but returned on June 30. Town officials again asked him to leave, but when he refused, they called Montgomery County Police.

Police from the 2nd District issued a trespassing warning to McConnell at the request of town officials. Once trespassing warnings are issued, the trespasser can be arrested if found on the property.

The warning was meant to keep McConnell out of the market, but there was a snag.

The no-trespass form police issued was for an incorrect address, at 10410 Montgomery Ave., down the street from the market located at 10417 Montgomery Ave.

Second District commander Capt. Wayne Jerman said the error voided the trespassing warning.

McConnell sent a letter to the town, dated July 10, stating that he was prepared to return to the market and to be arrested on July 14. But the town closed the market that day.

Kensington Mayor Peter Fosselman said the decision to close the market was based on safety.

‘‘I was provided with reason to believe there may have been a problem [at the market],” he wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette. ‘‘In addition, the market’s integrity was at risk by persons not willing to abide by the rules. It works because we have great vendors who follow these rules [and permits].”

‘‘We would never close the farmers market to prevent someone from selling something,” Fosselman said Friday. ‘‘We would close it because there is a disruption to the farmers market.”

Although McConnell was sent away from the market twice, he said he is prepared to come back to the market on Saturday.

But Fosselman said if he does, McConnell will receive another trespass warning.

‘‘He’s going to get issued another one. The police put down the wrong address,” Fosselman said. ‘‘If he’s going to continue to come, people are going to continue to be frustrated, and vendors are going to get frustrated and leave.”

McConnell, who was not a licensed, town-sanctioned vendor at the market, said his First Amendment rights of free speech are being restricted unfairly by the trespass order.

The $1 green buttons provide income for the Impeachment Fund, which uses profits to make lawn signs and more buttons with the same slogan.

Vendors at the Kensington Farmers Market are chosen by the town because they have homegrown items for sale, according to Shirley Watson, town employee and market manager.

‘‘It’s a producer’s-only market — that means vegetables, flowers, plants, soap, herbs,” Watson said.

One vendor sells craft items, but was grandfathered into the current market because she began selling items when it opened at least 12 years ago.

Watson said someone selling manufactured buttons doesn’t fit into the homegrown product theme of the farmers market.

‘‘I think that’s pretty obvious,” she said.